The Jammu and Kashmir government on Sunday ordered a probe into the circumstances leading to the assassination of state education minister Ghulam Nabi Lone and possible security lapses that enabled penetration of a high security zone on October 18.

The Kashmir Divisional Commissioner had been assigned the job to inquire into the slaying and 'ascertain failure, if any, in the chain of command and control that allowed the militants to break the security cordon in Tulsi Bagh area on October 18 and assassinate Lone', an official spokesman said.

The probe would examine the security arrangements for protected persons, especially in the context of the attack on Lone and Communist Party of India-Marxist leader M Y Tarigami, MLA, who escaped that day, he said.

It would locate and assign responsibility for 'lapses at the relevant level, if any, and examine whether these form part of a systematic failure', he said.

Lone was slain by militants in the fortified residential area of ministers and bureaucrafts and his official residence was also broken into that day, with gold and cash worth lakhs of rupees taken away.

People's Democratic Party leader and former tourism minister G H Mir had refused to buy the police version of the attack and asked the new chief minister to order a probe in a communication recently.